Paihia

Up north on the North Island is an area  called the Bay of Islands, we stayed at a place there called The Retreat which is just outside Paihia. We originally booked in for one night but stayed for four as it was so lovely. It is just outside the town with a beautiful view over the bay, it is so peaceful and calm and yet within five minutes drive you can be in Paihia. It is also handy for many other towns in the area and the couple who are running it were so friendly and gave us a lot of advice on what to do in the area. There are also a lot of coastal walks which you can walk to from the site. 

The view from our window, looking over the bay.

The roads around New Zealand can be very windy! So what should be a short route if you went as the crow flies, is usually a lot longer. The scenery is so lovely though and the roads so quiet that the journeys are enjoyable. 

We went to the  Bay of Islands as it is a good place to go diving. David wanted to dive at the Rainbow Warrior which was the boat owned by Greenpeace that was blown up by the French in Aukland Harbour. This is the only act of terrorism that has ever occurred in New Zealand. The boat was moved from Aukland and taken to the Bay and was deliberately sunk as a wreck site for divers. Another ship was deliberately sunk, which was the HMS Canterbury. As it turned out David couldn't do the Rainbow Warrior as the days of dives, didn't tie in with our time there but he did manage to do the Canterbury and a reef dive, both of which he really enjoyed. 

In the town of the Paihia there was a lovely little church which we decided to look at more closely. I like looking around interesting churches and graveyards and it just so happened that there is a geocache in the graveyard, which to be honest I think is a bit weird, but it kept David happy.

Views of the church inside and out.

Leading off from the graveyard was a  grassy area which had lots of notice boards telling about the history of the Paihia and why that plot of land in particular was of historical interest. In this spot the very first stone house was made in New Zealand by a missionary. Most houses in New Zealand even to this day are wooden, which obviously have a higher risk of fire. The missionary made it out of stone to make it less likey to burn down but ironically that is exactly what it did, all that is left of it now is a few layers of stone in the grass.